Compassion: Let’s Get Back What We Are Beginning To Lose

A judgement is our view on something. We are constantly making judgements about everything in life. About food, music, celebrities, cars, the weather, people, relationships, society etc.

Stephen M.R Covey made a truthful point through his writing. We tend to judge our actions by our intentions and personal experiences but when it comes to the actions and spoken words of others, we are more likely to judge others by their behaviour (e.g. what they have said or done). We all do this, knowingly and unknowingly.

Take as an example, the situation involving the young actress Pratyusha Banerjee who chose to end her life. We saw two main types of judgements towards Pratyusha’s action.Our judgements affect how we feel and how we behave towards others.

When we base our judgements on people’s actions (e.g. hurtful words), we are more likely to make negative judgements about them. This affects how we feel and how we behave towards them and others. We more likely to behave negatively towards them which increases problems.

When we try to understand the reasons behind people’s actions and see their life from their perspective, we are more likely to make accurate judgements and understand people. This is when we become compassionate.

What is compassion?
There’s no one right definition of compassion. Some people say compassion is about being sensitive to the suffering of others and showing concern. Others say it is being kind, warm and understanding towards others. In simple words, compassion is understanding another person’s suffering or difficulties in the same way as you would understand your own suffering or difficulties. Understanding others actions by seeing life from their perspective.
This can be hard when you don’t have a healthy way of understanding and react to your own difficulties. If you think negative of yourself, you are more likely to think negative of others too. This is why it is important to be compassionate and understanding of yourself and others.

Compassion is often what motivates people to help others. Compassion is not rocket science (so to speak) or a new discovery. You can trace compassion in many Holy Scriptures. We have just lost it over time.

Turning words into action: How to be more compassionate towards others

Talking and understanding compassion is one thing, being compassionate is another. Here are a few ideas that might help us be more compassionate.

Seeing the world through the eyes of another

This is easier said than done but is definitely possible through practice. To understand another person, their actions, their views and circumstances we need to:

Put our personal perceptions and views to one side and

Think how life must be like for the person we are trying to understand and be more compassionate towards.

The things you can ask is yourself are:

What might be the reasons behind the person’s actions?

What might be their views?

How did they develop their views? Was it based on their upbringing, culture, traditions, life experiences?

How might life be for the person?

Wherever possible, it helps to talk to the person you are trying to understand. Ask them.

We all have the tendency to hide things and put on an “everything is great in my life” act. This makes it even more important to ask the person you are trying to understand. When you ask them, be non-judgemental and listen. The temptation to interrupt and put your views across will be there, but do not give in until you have heard the person’s side completely.

Final words
The situation involving Pratyusha is just one example, we tend to make negative judgements about people in our daily lives without understanding their world, words and actions. This is in human nature but we can change it.

Understanding actions do not make someone’s actions right, wrong or justified. That’s not the point. It supports us in choosing a healthy way of reacting, managing the situation and moving forward. This is beneficial for ourselves and others than “playing the blame game”.
Everyone deserves compassion, both ourselves and others. Through understanding, we unite, without it problems increase. The Choice is ours to make.
Do you know of any other ways of how we can bring compassion back?

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Know Why This Small Town In Tamil Nadu Is In The Guinness Book Of World Records

Did you know there is a town at the southern tip of India that can be called ‘Heaven on Earth’. Its people realise the importance of keeping the environment clean.

Madukkarai Panchayat in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, is the cleanest place in India, owing to around 50 women who wake up every day to collect waste from each and every household in the town. At 6 AM, the women set out to work with their green jackets on, hands covered in gloves and caps adjusted perfectly on their heads. Every morning they line up for the roll call. These ‘Green Friends’ are part of the solid waste management program supported by ACC Cement – Madukkarai.

Madukkarai, a small town at the tip of the country, is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest recycling lesson in the world. With the help of around 50 women, who are now called ‘Green Friends’, and a simple, scalable model, this town is leading the way for efficient waste management. #SwachhBharat

While most of us find someone to put the blame on, Madukkarai decided to take control in their own hands. The town has 8,000 households and a population of 42,000. 82% of the homes hand over garbage to ‘Green Friends’ every day. 1,440 tonnes of garbage is collected annually from the town of 18 wards and 107 streets.

There is a lot that we can learn from Madukkarai. One of the most disturbing realities that we face, despite which part of the country we reside in, is the similar dirt everywhere – garbage piled up on roadside, drains clogged with plastic bags and dogs chewing on the leftover food we have callously thrown on the streets.

We keep our homes clean; make sure that the floors are mopped every day. But why do we not share the same sentiment for our surroundings? We hardly realize that the street outside our home is as much ours as is anybody else’s. We are the ones who use these roads every day to commute. Madukkarai realized this and the importance of a clean environment for our health and well-being.

Guinness Book of World Records for the largest recycling lesson in the world

‘Green Friends’ collect household wastes in eight different bins for wet waste, kitchen waste, plastic waste, etc. This is then disposed in large bins kept in several parts of the town. Trucks pick up this waste daily and take it to the resource recovery park where the garbage is recycled.

The treatment center segregates the different types of wastes. The kitchen waste is converted into fertilizers and given to farmers at extremely low prices to use in cultivation of their crops. The plastic waste is processed to be used in the construction of roads, and also at the large ACC factory where it is used as fuel at high temperatures which does not even cause pollution.

Due to the efforts of ‘Green Friends’, the citizens of Madukkarai, and the municipality, there has been a 60% reduction in landfill waste over the span of three years. There has also been a 50% reduction in the vehicle movement to the landfill sites, 85% of organic waste is converted successfully into vermin compost, ample reduction in the use of fossil fuels, reduction in greenhouse gas emission to 60%, and substantial decrease in the spread of malaria and dengue among the people. Furthermore, barren lands provided for compost yard have been successfully converted into fully functional organic compost yard and non-recyclable waste is used as an alternative energy source for the cement industry.

Madukkarai’s citizens have also become more environment-friendly, with 30% of the households segregating the organic-recyclable waste at home.

What we can learn

Madukkarai has paved the way to the sustainable development of our world. They have shown us that is not impossible to keep our environment clean. All we need is to inculcate in us a concern for mother Earth. It is commendable that ACC is supporting Madukkarai in its venture and helping it stay clean.

We, as citizens of other towns, cities, villages and states in India, have a lot to learn from Madukkarai. We too can have a healthier life if only we care enough and practice our civil duties proudly.